Category Archives: Entertainment

What keeps me entertained? Sensory inputs such as movies, TV, music, books; generally, sitting on my ass staring passively at some sort of screen. But there are other things too, like hobbies such as dance, sewing and photography.

I was sooooo robbed!!!

Posted in Accomplishments, Entertainment, Hobbies, Me Me Me! by

Alright, so our bowling league banquet night was on Saturday.  It was actually ok, except for the part where I WAS TOTALLY ROBBED OF WHAT WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE (probably)!!!  And by this, I mean the award for “most improved bowler”.  See, apparently it doesn’t matter what your starting average was at week one, or week three (three weeks being the time you need to establish your average).  No.  The starting week was week 6.  Tell me that doesn’t suck!!!  I mean, that’s certainly not the beginning of the bowling season, that’s a month and a half into it!  So, obviously, to ensure that I get this award next year, I’m going to have to bowl really sucky for the first six weeks and then kick ass.  It’s ok though, because I was also disappointed to learn that there were no trophies to be given to any of the award winners.  What’s up with THAT???  Plus, my chicken was dry (not to mention covered with mushrooms), and Chris’ steak was fatty (not to mention covered with gravy).

Ok, my rant is done.  Actually, the nice thing about the banquet is that everyone got a prize.  Chris received recognition for scoring a game over 225, and I would’ve received recognition for scoring a game over 150, but something was messed up so I’ll get my fridge magnet prize in the fall.  Sad face.  However, our team won the league champion award for coming in first place overall (which earned us $93.50)!  Our team also came in first place during sweeps week (another $37.50 in winnings…cha-ching!)!  And I won 4th place during sweeps week for the women’s singles group ($5.00 – booyah – Chris won 5th place in the men’s singles sweeps week, so he only got $4.00)!  Everyone even got some money back…Chris and I took home a total of almost $300 in winnings!  Plus, there were door prizes.  Some of them were horrendously awful, but we actually walked away with the best prizes available: a folding camp chair, an ultra-soft snuggle blanket, a beverage thermos, and a big hanging flower pot full of purple petunias.

I’m looking forward to seeing what rewards will be reaped from participating in the summer Tuesday Superbowl league!

Ovo Means Egg

Posted in Entertainment, Music and Dance by

Last night Chris and I went to see Cirque du Soliel’s “Ovo” at the Portland Expo Center, under the Grande Chapiteau!  It was a great time because acrobats + insects = awesome!  I bought us pretty good seats, but tall people sat in front of us and I had to keep looking around the guy’s stupid fat head the entire first half of the show.  So, during the intermission the box office changed our seats to premium – we were in row H and seated on an aisle, so no one was in front of us.  Now THOSE were fantastic seats – super close, just above stage-level, and unobstructed!  I didn’t take all of these pictures, so sorry copyright police. 

 The ants dancing with kiwi and corn were my favorite, I think!

The crickets jumping from trampolines onto the climbing wall were pretty spectacular, too.

And the contortionist spiders were freakishly incredible!  Nearly all the performances were pretty unbelievable – definitely see this show if you get the chance!

So Long, Half-Timers!

Posted in Accomplishments, Entertainment, Hobbies, Me Me Me! by

Last week was our last night bowling with the Half-Timers league.  I think our team came in first place (shhhh…it’s a secret for now), probably due to my super high awesome handicap.  Interesting statistics:  My overall average is a 108.  However, I started the season with a 3 week average of 90, and ended the season with a 3 week average of 128.  I’m hoping to get the “most improved bowler” award at our post-season banquet in a couple of weeks! When it comes down to it, I really just want a bowling trophy – I don’t care what it’s for!  But Chris had better look out, since I start the SuperBowl league next week without him…when we both start the Half-Timers again in the fall I may be actual competition!

My bowling average through the league season.

 And, I scored my first turkey two weeks ago!  Woo hoo!

Slight Hiatus

Posted in Entertainment, Hobbies by

Well, hello there!  It’s been a while, huh?  I’ve taken a bit of a break from blogging (duh), but that doesn’t mean I’ve just been lazing about with my thumb up my butt.  No sir-eeee.  I’ve actually been catching up with my digital scrapbooking, which is something that I *really* fell behind in (and you thought I was bad at keeping up with this blog!).  So I’ll tell you what I’ve accomplished:

– Entire scrapbook of our honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean – DONE!
– Entire scrapbook of our cruise up to Alaksa – DONE!
– 2006 Year in Review scrapbook – DONE!!! (finally)
– 2012 Year in Review – I’m working backwards, and have 6 out of 10 pages DONE!
– 2011 Year in Review – I’ve got 9 out of 41 pages DONE, and am motivated to keep going!

Here are a few examples of my work so far, just so you can see what these pages look like (from 2011 and 2012).  Each one is quite a bit of work, considering that I have to choose photos, do any artistic photoshop alterations, pick a color theme and related art, and figure out a layout that will work. They’re 12″ x 12″; some of them are single pages, and others are doubles:

 Chris and I went to see Bela Fleck in Reno for our one-year anniversary.  I love my camera – it takes really great pictures in low-light situations and the zoom is awesome!


 You can’t have five cats and not make fun of them with a scrapbook page.

This is the first page of a two-page spread about the Halloween Party we hosted last year.  This is one of my favorites; the second page is good too because I got pictures of everyone in their costumes!
Anywhooo…that’s all for now.  I’ve got to keep chugging along on 2011.  When I get a chance, I’ve been reading The Walking Dead graphic novels – did you know that The Walking Dead TV show is actually based on a graphic novel saga?  Yes, it’s true.  There are like 30 books or something, and the show has only covered the first two.  I’m on book 5, and so far it has held my interest.  Oh – I’m also reading “Before I go to Sleep”, which is the book I chose for our book club to read this month.  I was hoping it would be more of a thriller (it’s about a woman who wakes up every morning not remembering the day before, like in the movie “Memento”), but so far it has been a snooze.  Oh well!  At least it makes me go to sleep quickly in the evenings!

That’s how I roll

Posted in Books, Entertainment, Hobbies by

Now that my average bowling score is firmly in the three-digit range (101, baby!), I decided to move up in the world of bowling balls. While I heart my leopard-spotted plastic ball, it’s just too light and it pretty much just bounces off the pins, especially if the pins give my ball the evil eye. The result: those dumb pins just keep standing there. My aim has really improved (I think), and I even scored a 156 a couple of weeks ago – my new high score! So, to teach those pins a lesson, I’m bringing in the big guns with a fancy new bowling ball. All hail the Pearl Panther! This orb is a swirl of pink and black pearlized ferociousness, and features a silver-glittered panther and a buzz saw blade on its surface (I don’t know why the buzz saw blade is there, because the manufacturer is Lane 1, but the buzz saw blade looks extra badass so I’m fine with it). It’s a reactive ball, weighted to hook nicely and hit the pocket just right, giving the pins no chance but to bow down to the ball’s master. And that would be me.

I will let you know what happens. I’m going to practice with my new ball on Saturday and we’ll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, since Tyleen posted about the books she’s reading, I thought I’d pass along my recent reading spree – the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. WOW!!! I read all three (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay) in quick time. They are about a post-apocalyptic society (in what was formerly North America) and the social rules that society imposes to keep order and maintain power. Very violent but captivating. I can’t wait to see the movie, which comes out in March. So, now I’m going to read Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. A true story – Hedy Lamarr was a burlesque dancer in the 1920’s who invented much of the digital wireless foundation for technology we have today, such as cell phones. Pasties and weapons deals and crazy inventions…this should be a good one.

Happy Unofficial Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Awareness Week!!!

Posted in Entertainment, Humor, Movies and TV by

And happy new year, as well! I’ve taken a good hard look at this blog and have decided that it has morphed into something not very Marcilicious in recent months. I mean, who wants to just read about all the things I’ve done, places I’ve gone, and people I’ve seen? Right. So, I’m assuming that, like me, you’re much more interested in other things…like zombie apocalypse readiness. Or, like me, maybe you’re just missing fresh episodes of “The Walking Dead” (damn, you mid-season slump!). To lessen the withdrawal symptoms, I’ve been watching the “Resident Evil” movies, but I only watch one a week because I get DVDs one at a time from Netfarts. But at that rate, The Walking Dead will be back before I know it.

In the meantime, I’ve declared this week Unofficial Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Awareness Week! Never mind that it’s Wednesday and the week started on Sunday – it’s never to late to brush up on your zombie readiness tactics; that is, unless, you find yourself in the middle of a Level 2 zombie infestation and you are not prepared. So, really, I guess its never to *soon* to brush up on your zombie readiness tactics.


So let’s start. Take a look at Figure 1, below:

Figure 1

It’s time to make some tough decisions. When the zombie apocalypse comes a-knockin’, what will you do? Most people will ultimately serve as screaming brain-stuffed appetizers prior to the main course of screaming brain-stuffed entree. I, for one, will choose not to be in the red zone. I will not divulge my zombie resistance survival plan here, but I strongly suggest you read “The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, poste haste! You will want to be prepared, and if you can’t be a badass (see Figure 2):

Figure 2

…or if you don’t have the resources for genius (see Figure 3):

Figure 3

…then I suggest you start reading right away. You can also attempt to desensitize yourself by watching zombie movies as well. Some of my favorites are Shaun of the Dead (of course), Tokyo Zombie, and RoboGeisha (which is not a zombie movie, but I came across it when I found Tokyo Zombie). And, because they’re worth mentioning again, Resident Evil and The Walking Dead will provide invaluable information on how to survive the zombie plague.

Good luck, my friends, let me know how things turn out for you!

A few more bellydance pics for you…

Posted in Entertainment, Music and Dance by

About a week ago I did another photo shoot for Darcy, for her henna business. Here are a few of the better pictures…who’d have thought that it’s actually quite fun getting all painted up with sparkles and henna and then fluttering about in jingly costumes?!

In case you’re wondering, the Photoshop skills are all mine, baby! Darcy’s going to blow up the photos to poster-size for her booth, which she brings to festivals and fairs. Neato, huh?

An Evening with the Freak Mountain Ramblers!

Posted in Entertainment, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Music and Dance by

And, by Freak Mountain Ramblers, I don’t mean my family…although my family was there with me. Anne and Paul invited me to join them at an outdoor concert just a few blocks from where I live, so I took them up on it. Anne and Paul brought a picnic dinner and my niece, I brought warm chocolate chip cookies (to win over my niece), and the Freak Mountain Ramblers brought the Grateful Dead cover music and washed up hippie dancing with juggle sticks. It was a nice change for an evening – the weather was perfect, and it was so close to my house! Ahhhh…I love northwest Portland…



Yup, he’s still going!

Superstar!!!

Posted in Entertainment, Music and Dance by

Much like Molly Shannon as her Mary Katherine Gallagher character, I have secretly yearned to be a superstar: worshiped by audiences, adored by fans, and lusted after by teenage boys who have posters of me above their beds. And yes, dear admirers, that day has come – for I have survived my very first bellydance performance.

Ok, I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous. I’ve been taking neo-tribal bellydance classes at Euphoria Studios for a while now and about a month ago we started rehearsing for the annual student show. There are three beginning 2 neo-tribal classes (which is the one that I take) that performed together to do a veil and improv piece; I had my doubts as to whether it would all come together or not because we hadn’t all practiced together in the performance studio (no mirror to watch everyone else!). But in the end, all of us coalesced into a colorful veil-spinning group that made it through the performance without anyone tripping on a veil or passing out. And I didn’t even get blocked by anyone trying to hog the spotlight from *me*! As if they even could…hee hee hee! :oP

Chris took some really nice pictures of our group and the other performers, and I was happy to have him in the audience cheering me on. Yes, I had my concentration face on, but I tried to remember to smile and shake it like the best of them! It really was a lot of fun and I hope that I get another opportunity to perform for such a supportive and enthusiastic audience.